Five Questions: Eric Wheeler

Here’s the first installment of a new feature we’re calling Five Questions. This will be where we do a short interview with a community member to get their take on skateboarding and the Ann Arbor Skatepark. The people you’ll read about here will be skaters, parents, business owners, government officials, and anyone else who wants to chime in on why it’s a good idea to have a skatepark in Ann Arbor. Five Questions will appear each Wednesday. Do you want to be interviewed for Five Questions, or know of someone who should be? Shoot us an email and we’ll get on it!

Our first interviewee is Eric Wheeler. He’s 23, and manager of Launch Board Shop in Ann Arbor. He’s originally from Lansing, and has been living in Ann Arbor for six years. Trevor interviewed Eric on February 1, 2009.

Trevor: Where and how often do you usually skate?

Eric: In the winter, skate parks and makeshift places. Last year we had a basement that our buddy’s construction company owned, so we skated that every day. This winter, we’re lucky to have a buddy with a barn with a ramp in it. In the summer I skate downtown on the street. We drive to Detroit, we drive out of state: Cincinatti, Toledo, and other cities. I skate every day.

Trevor: Who do you usually skate with?

Eric: The Launch (Board Shop) Team, all those guys. I guess there’s not a lot of time for too many other people.

Trevor: Why and how did you start skating?

Eric: I’ve always had a skateboard, but never quite figured it out ‘til high school. I always rode one, so I always had a good feel for it. It’s something I got into when I was really young, playing on the playground with other kids.

Trevor: What do you most want to see at the Ann Arbor Skatepark?

Eric: Lots of good transition that’s built right, of all different sizes from really small to really big. Good “street” as well, just a good mix of everything. It needs to have a good balance, which is what a lot of skateparks are leaning toward. The Grindline website has a lot of good pictures of skateparks, it all looks pretty proper. You got your bowl/cradle area, and around it every different size (stair) sets, plaza-type deal with different size ledges, banked ledges. I like it when they mix the street with the tranny, I don’t like to keep them all separate. I like small, tight trannies with natural looking transition, banked ledges, volcanoes; something that’s really progressive, not just basic. The park should have features that other parks don’t have.

Trevor: What do you think is the best way for us to get skaters involved in the Ann Arbor Skatepark project?

Eric: Well, luring them in with prizes helps, everyone likes an incentive. I’d think that getting a skatepark would be enough, but hands-on stuff is good, like the skate jams. Every skateboarder wants to skate. They all want to skate something where other people are skating.